Michael Welch

The Freedom Trail is a 2.5
mile red-brick walking trail that leads you to sixteen nationally
significant historic sites, every one an authentic American
treasure. Preserved and dedicated by the citizens of Boston in
1958, when the wrecking ball threatened, the Freedom Trail today is
a unique collection of museums, churches, meeting houses, burying
grounds, parks, a ship, and historic markers that tell the story of
the American Revolution and beyond.

During spring 2000, Keith, James and I took a tour around the
north-eastern USA. This interactive map documents our journey with
photos and descriptions of the places we visited.

Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely
built and owned by its residents. Since opening to the public in
2003, it has grown explosively and today is inhabited by nearly
100,000 people from around the globe.

If you use my SL in-world vending machines this link
will take you to the web-interface for managing your vendors and
reporting on your sales.

Juggling Three Objects

Believe it or not three objects are easier to juggle than
two, so to become a successful juggler you should start with three
objects and work up. Three objects also look more impressive than
two and since the reason you want to learn to juggle is to impress
your friends that's all the better. Anybody can juggle, the only
thing it requires is a bit of time and a small amount of
coordination.

Step 1: Locate some objects

Professional jugglers usually pick two sorts of objects,
dangerous things (like knives, chain saws, broken spirit bottles)
or silly things (hats, rubber chickens, live fish). There is a
remarkable lack of professional jugglers who's first juggling
objects were chain saws (at least there's a remarkable lack of
professional jugglers with all their kneecaps who's first juggling
objects were chain saws).

So, find something soft and small like beanbags. Some people
start with silk scarves or tennis balls. Scarf juggling is quite
different from ball juggling and tennis balls tend to bounce
around and roll under the furniture when you drop them (trust me,
there will be lots of picking things up from the floor in the next
few hours, you don't want to be moving the sofa around as well) so
beanbags are the way to go.

Step 2: Learn failure

Take two objects in one hand, and one in the other. Throw
them all up in the air. Watch them all fall to the ground. This is
gravity. Juggling makes a mockery of gravity, gravity doesn't like
being mocked.

The objects should have fallen in front of you. If they're
all around the room or worse still in another room then you're
either in space or you have no coordination. A study by NASA
during the Apollo programme showed that juggling in space isn't
very entertaining, so wait until you return to Earth.

You should get used to seeing the objects on the floor in
front of you since this is the sight you'll be seeing fairly
regularly for a while. Don't think of them as being objects on the
ground, think of them as objects that were in the air.

Take one object and place it in one of your hands. Throw it in an
arc across your chest and (attempt) to catch it with your other
hand. The maximum height the ball should reach (or peak out)
is about eye-level. Now throw the ball back to the first hand in
the same way.

Don't worry if you keep dropping the ball, the secret of
juggling is throwing, not catching. If you can throw the ball so
that it comes down in the correct place, catching it is much
easier. Keep practicing this with both hands until you think
you've got it (or until you get bored with it).

Take two objects, place one in each hand (note for people with
more than two hands, just put any extra hands in your pockets).
Throw one of the objects as in Step 3. Now
comes the tricky bit, when the first object peaks out throw the
second object. Now catch the first object, then the second. The
pattern should go throw, throw, catch, catch. You will end
up with the objects in the opposite hands to when you started.

This sequence is fundamental to juggling any odd number of
objects, practice it lots. When you can do this continuously for
at least ten throws and catches, you're well on your way to
becoming a juggler. At this stage you can go and show a friend
what you've learned, but make sure it's a friend who's easily
impressed and knows nothing about juggling or else they're liable
to say "That's not juggling".

Step 5: Juggle!

Start with two objects in one hand and one object in the other.
Throw one of the objects from the hand with two in the air. Now do
exactly the same as you did in Step 4, as a
ball peaks out throw from the hand it's heading for. If you can
keep doing this you are juggling.

You are now a Juggler!

So, it went wrong and everyone's laughing at you. It's not time to
consider a career as a Mime yet, check out the problems page.

Problems

So, you've followed the 5 steps to Juggling Three Objects, but you're
still having some trouble. Here's a few common problems and
solutions:

I have to keep stepping forward to make my catches

Almost everyone seems to do this when they start juggling, some
people call it "Sprinting Juggler Syndrome". The problem is
that you are throwing too far forward, so you have to lunge or
step forward to make the catch. The accepted solution is to
practise in front of a wall. This forces you to make your throws
in a plane parallel to the wall.

I keep getting two objects coming down at the same time

Again, this is a throwing problem. Your throws are probably
peaking out at different heights, leading to some objects taking
longer to do an arc than others. You should practise your throws
some more as in Step 3.
I know it's boring, but it will pay dividends when you come to try
some really cool stuff.

Here you will find some links
to other interesting places on the Internet.